Turkish Retail Bank Garanti BBVA Rolls Out Support for Crypto Transactions

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Garanti BBVA Digital Assets, a subsidiary of Garanti BBVA Financial Technologies, has unveiled a cryptocurrency wallet service on its mobile platform, marking a significant development in Turkey’s banking sector.

Garanti BBVA Crypto Integration

Concurrently, Garanti BBVA has also extended its services to allow its customers to engage in the trade of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and USD Coin (USDC) through the Garanti BBVA Crypto app. Starting as a beta service with a restricted number of users, the service became available to all its customers after a successful trial period.

Currently, the bank plans to expand its crypto services and improve the quality of its service delivery in the market.

One of the largest retail banks in Turkey, a subsidiary of BBVA, just launched direct support for using USDC and a native crypto wallet. Follow the money. https://t.co/HcH2SvSwI7

— Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) June 15, 2024

Similarly, Garanti BBVA revealed that it will soon introduce the Bonus Platinum Biometric Card. This payment method will employ the fingerprint scanning to enable transactions hence increasing the security and ease at the point of purchase. The application for this card can be done via the Garanti BBVA digital platforms as well as the traditional branch banking system.

In line with enhancing digital convenience, the bank has introduced a ‘Request Payment’ feature for money transfers between accounts which is in line with the bank’s strategy to improve the efficiency of digital transactions and meet the changing requirements of the customers.

Banking Industry Challenges in Crypto

The move by Garanti BBVA into crypto services shows a different trend from what other global banks are going through. For instance, the Federal Reserve has recently examined Evolve Bank and Trust in the U.S. due to weakness in its Anti-Money Laundering processes and association with distressed fintech companies.

This scrutiny shows the challenges banks face in terms of compliance when partnering with fintech and crypto companies.

In the same way, the Swiss FlowBank was closed by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) lately due to the insufficient capital, which proves that the banks actively involved in the dynamically developing crypto market are rather risky.

However, the successful launch of crypto services by Garanti BBVA shows that there is a positive trend among banks to offer digital assets while maintaining strict compliance measures.

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